Why Is North Carolina Paying This Proud Son of Confederate Veterans to Lock Up Black Men?
Kevin Stone, who denies that he is a racist or a member of a white-supremacist group, is statewide head of the North Carolina chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the fraternity of direct descendants of Confederate soldiers that the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as “dominated by racial extremists.” He is also co-founder and national “commander” of the Mechanized Cavalry Heritage Defense, the SCV’s motorcycle gang with reported ties to hate groups and outlaw biker clubs whose motto is “Ride as You Would With Forrest”—as in Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Last year, Stone was elected leader of the SCV’s Army of Northern Virginia, giving him oversight of the organization’s dealings in several Atlantic states. In easily discoverable photos across the internet, Stone wears a motorcycle vest bearing insignia associated with a notorious neo-Nazi group, flashes reputed white-power hand signs, and stands alongside some of the biggest names in the white-supremacist movement.
And Kevin Stone is also a probation officer, meaning North Carolina has given him legal authority over the lives and freedom of Black and brown folks ensnared by the state’s system of criminal injustice.
Since last summer’s uprisings following the police murder of George Floyd, and on the heels of the white-supremacist Capitol insurrection in January, there’s been a national discussion about the need to root out white supremacists within the country’s police forces. But Stone is no undercover “ghost skin” law-enforcement infiltrator. He’s an SCV media mouthpiece—a highly powerful and visible force in the neo-Confederate ranks who’s been quoted in outlets from The New York Times to USA Today.
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In 2019, North Carolina Department of Public Safety spokesperson Tracy Lee issued a statement noting the agency was “aware of the concerns raised” by Stone’s associations, and that it would be “looking into the matter and will take actions deemed most appropriate.” Lee concluded by stating the “department expects its employees to maintain high ethical and moral standards."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-north-carolina-paying-proud-090609731.html
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